Beautiful Dragon, monkey, lizard, lions OH MY

[ladyalthea]

Hi !

Im so glad i found this forum. What an interesting read this has been!

I recently picked this up at a flea market because i fell in love with it. Im curious if the mark on the bottom is for the silver or the maker of the entire object.

It seems stone of some sort with beautiful silver work. If this is a new item its done with the time of the old.

If anyone has any info on this i would appreciate hearing it! Heck even theories or hair brained schemes :)










lots more pics too.....
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[ladyalthea]

I did find a similar object with way less silver on it. Seems the one i saw online was dated to pre 1900's.

Maybe that will help somehow?
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[CHAMPIE]

the second word means silver.
the first word ?? don't know.

some sort of silver. May be sterling. It is not pure silver.

My wife is Chinese. She khows the word but not what is means.
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[ladyalthea]

thank you SO much for replying! I really appreciate it :)
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[silverly]

The first character can be the Mandarin surname Wén. It can also be an old classifier for coins which may even fit in this case. Sorry to raise another question.
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[wei]

it means coin silver, but I think its a new piece.